After Chelsea's glorious Champions League victory over Manchester City, a quote made by Frank Lampard resurfaced, purely intending to mock the dismissed club icon.
Lampard, forlorn and dejected after another insipid and lifeless performance, assessed Chelsea's Premier League title hopes following a damaging 2-0 defeat at Leicester City to leave the Blues in ninth place, nine points off top spot.
Sat in the King Power press room, Lampard might have already concluded this was likely to be one of his last post-match engagements. He was proved right by his sacking the following Monday despite overseeing Chelsea's FA Cup win over Luton Town the day before.
"We are not at the position of a Chelsea Football Club that we were when we were winning leagues."
Lampard's verdict reflected the mood around Stamford Bridge at the time, losing three of the previous five league games in emphatic fashion and noise growing of the club legend being replaced by a German head coach.
Lampard also had a sense of resignation that led many to conclude his tenure should end, given his admission that his team could not compete with the league's best. A theory that would be undermined when Tuchel charged Chelsea to a Champions League final win over Manchester City four months later.
But unfortunately, that quote expressed over 365 days ago looms over Chelsea's 2021/22 campaign as the reigning European Champions sit 12 points behind Manchester City heading into the week Lampard was replaced one year ago.
Even more uncomfortable to comprehend is that Chelsea's current Premier League run since November is only one point better than the one that got Lampard sacked. The Blues have picked up 15 points in their last 11 league games, while Lampard got 14 in the same number.
The damning factor for Lampard was Chelsea sitting below the Champions League spots with more heavy defeats to Arsenal, Manchester City and Leicester in weeks. As Colin Millar pointed out this week, Chelsea was ninth when Lampard was sacked, and they are now 3rd. Lampard was sacked after 19 games with 29 points, whilst Tuchel is on 23 games with 44 points.
The German's points per game of 1.91 is also higher than Lampard's 1.52.
There are mitigating factors too. Devastating injuries to Ben Chilwell and Reece James have lessened quality, two players who were in extraordinary form. There is a consistent host of other badly timed knocks to players that have disrupted rhythm in other areas.
A flurry of COVID cases before Christmas decimated options, but Tuchel's men were still required to fulfil all of their games despite 18 of the 20 Premier League clubs having at least one game called off in the past month.
Tuchel's issues have been drawing seven since the start of November with Burnley – all of them coming against teams below them in the table at the start of play.
The lack of wins is a concern too. Since November, Chelsea has only won one more league game than Norwich and eight fewer than Man City, as pointed out by Opta's Duncan Alexander.
Chelsea's title hopes have all but evaporated, and the lack of energy in the Brighton performance felt reminiscent of similar displays at this time of the year under the previous three coaches, where the whole second half of the season became engulfed with fear over missing out on Champions League qualification.
Tuchel's squad won't face another league test until the 19th of February at Selhurst Park due to the January international break, FA Cup and involvement in the FIFA Club World Cup. The focus on cup competitions and a less congested schedule is exactly what this group craves.
But the larger echo of Lampard's words rings sadly true to Tuchel, whose inspirational presence has been undermined by tiringly predictable flaws to supporters.
His masterful coaching transformed Chelsea into an incredible machine capable of winning the Champions League. His presence has proven how high the ceiling could be with him in the dugout at Stamford Bridge, but the next hurdle to a league title will not be as much of a quick fix.
Make sure you have subscribed to CareFree Chelsea on YouTube! The Fan Brands team along with plenty of your football.london favourites will be producing daily Chelsea content for you to enjoy including match reactions, podcasts, football fun and interviews. You can follow Daniel Childs from the CareFreeChelsea team to keep up to date with his work. If you enjoyed reading this then give my other articles a read below.
